Today’s passage is Mark 9:30-37. Jesus and his disciples don’t stop in Galilee because he was teaching his disciples about his betrayal, death and resurrection, which the disciples don’t understand but are afraid to ask. On the way to Capernaum, the disciples argued about who was the greatest. Jesus says that whoever wants to be first must be last and the servant of all. He takes a child in his arms and says whoever welcomes a child in his name welcomes him and whoever welcomes him welcomes the Father.
What are you afraid to ask?
Do you always need to be right?
Do you welcome others?
Fear of rejection is one of the devil’s most powerful tools.
It’s the flip side of pride.
When I’m afraid to ask about something I don’t understand but worry that others will think I’m stupid, I show my pride and my lack of humility.
The truth is that I don’t understand most of what I encounter because there’s so much to learn and there’s really no way for me to know things unless I ask.
By being afraid to ask, I condemn myself to ignorance, which hurts my pride.
When I was just entering puberty, I didn’t understand all the details about how babies were made.
My parents forgot to tell me and the school hadn’t yet taught that lesson in health class.
I asked a question of some classmates who I assumed were wondering the same thing but they already knew.
They chose to make fun of my ignorance.
Mockery is a form of rejection.
The negative lesson they taught me shaped me in a bad way.
It made me hide questions I should have asked.
My personal and intellectual growth was warped. I had to fight myself for most of my life, wanting to know things but afraid to ask.
My fear of exposing my ignorance made me search for knowledge on my own, a much slower process than asking questions.
The Internet didn’t exist until I was in my forties, so it was harder to acquire information when I was growing up.
As I acquired more and more knowledge, though, I wanted to share it with others, even if they didn’t want to know.
I never waited for people’s questions.
Instead, I would begin a conversation with what I thought was a curious fact so that we could have a discussion that went far beyond the fact.
Here’s an example: “Did you know that the ancient Egyptians left the heart in the body of the people they mummified? I wonder why they did that.” If the person I was talking to was interested in the heart, physically or metaphorically, we could have a conversation.
I always wondered why I became a teacher when I didn’t want to.
I begin to think that it, at least in part, it was God’s way of healing me of my fear about asking questions about what I don’t understand.
A great of teaching is helping kids to ask questions and not be afraid.
As I welcome more of Jesus into my life, I grow less afraid.
Application: share my QT with my Sunday School students and ask them to share their stories.
Lord, let me welcome more of you into my life. Help me welcome the children in care at my school.
